« Atheists and secular humanists consistently make the claim that religion is the #1 cause of violence and war throughout the history of mankind … Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume “Encyclopedia of Wars” chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as being religious in nature, which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, when one subtracts out those waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage is cut by more than half to 3.23% That means that all religious faiths combined – minus Islam – have caused less than 4% of all of humanity’s wars and violent conflicts. Further, they played no motivating role in the major wars that have resulted in the most loss of life.
The truth is, non-religious motivations and naturalistic philosophies bear the blame for nearly all of humankind’s wars. Lives lost during religious conflict pales in comparison to those experienced during the government regimes who wanted nothing to do with the idea of God – something showcased in R. J. Rummel’s work “Lethal Politics and Death by Government.”
Lives Lost to Democide Under Secular/Atheist Governments:
1. Joseph Stalin – 42,672,000
2. Mao Zedong – 37,828,000
3. Adolf Hitler – 20,946,000
4. Chiang Kai-shek – 10,214,000
5. Vladimir Lenin – 4,017,000
6. Hideki Tojo – 3,990,000
7. Pol Pot – 2,397,0003
“Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or killed in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.”
The historical evidence is quite clear: Religion is not the #1 cause of war … »
Source: http://carm.org/religion-cause-war
« So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants, and the best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” » (From 1 Samuel 8)